Interactive Marketing: A Dark Tale

On May 12, 2007, Warner Brothers released the first web teaser for the upcoming Batman Begins movie sequel, The Dark Knight. The teaser was an image of the Batman bat symbol exploding into many pieces. It was mysterious but it was only the first clue into an almost year long interactive marketing campaign that bridged the offline world and the web, and fiction with reality. The following is the chronology of “The Dark Knight” interactive marketing campaign.

May 13th-ish: Fictitious campaign posters were hung throughout major US metropolitan areas which showed Harvey Dent (played by Aaron Eckhart) running for District Attorney. The poster finished with the line, “I believe in Harvey Dent.” This phrase was a nod to what is considered one of the best Batman graphic novels ever written, The Long Halloween. When fans used this phrase as a URL, “www.ibelieveinharveydent.com”, they found a single page website that mirrored the physical posters hung around US cities. A few days later, the posters around the cities were defaced with graffiti that blackened Harvey Dent’s eyes and gave him a bright red smile. The phrase “I believe in Harvey Dent” was appended to now say, “I believe in Harvey Dent too”. When fans went to “www.ibelieveinharveydenttoo.com, they saw this same defaced poster of Harvey Dent and were asked for their email address. After submitting their email address, they were given instructions to “flip” one pixel on this defaced campaign poster. After thousands of fans flipped the pixels, a new image on the site was revealed giving fans the first peek of the “Joker” played by Heath Ledger. On May 22nd, the Joker image was removed and the page now just said “Page not found”. It seemed that Warner Bros took down the site. However, when fans selected the black background, they found that it was actually black on black text that just repeated the phrase, “ha ha ha ha ha” thousands of times. Some observant fans discovered that there were some other characters mixed in with the “ha ha ha”s and when they were extracted, it read “See you in December”.

http://catchupblog.typepad.com/catch_up_blog/2007/05/buzz_in_the_blo.html

Right around this same time, joker cards started showing up hidden in books throughout bookstores around the US. They had an antique look to them and “Ha ha ha” was scribbled on them as well.

In July, before the Comic-Con tradeshow and a Warner Bros panel about the new film, a new website was launched based on the phrase, “Why so serious?” at www.whysoserious.com. It featured an old WWI Uncle Sam, I want you poster but this was defaced like the Harvey Dent posters mentioned before with the black eyes and the red lips. In the corner was a countdown and geo coordinates. The coordinates pointed to a location outside of Comic-Con in San Diego. When fans clicked on the image, they were provided with a recruitment message that read, “Enjoy a career in a lucrative, ultra high-profile field. Our associates make their own hours, enjoy great benefits and, in some cases, work from home.”

http://www.cinematical.com/2007/07/27/the-joker-shows-up-night-before-warner-comic-con-panel/

Fans flocked to the location at the time indicated by the countdown clock. There they were greeted by a string of mysterious vehicles and official secret service looking individuals. These recruiters handed out small green felt bags to each fan. These bags contained a joker playing card, black/red/white makeup, a mirror, instructions that read, “dress for excess”, and the creepy photo of the Joker featured on the ibelieveinharveydenttoo.com site to use as a makeup guide. After the fans finished the makeup, they were given a series of crimes and tasks to complete, including stealing cookies from a girl scout. With each task, fans were given phrases and clues leading up to one fan declared the winner and was quickly escorted away. The rest of the fans received a joker mask that will be featured in the opening sequence of the film as well as a message that read, “Well, that guy earned the job you all would have died for.” When fans went to the site, whysoserious.com, they were now greeted with an update from the Gotham Police Department that claims that the Joker has been eliminated and for all forces to stand down. The photo they featured was of the fan that won the contest and for any fan that was in San Diego that day, they knew that they had only caught one of Joker’s accomplices.

http://www.comicbookresources.com/news/newsitem.cgi?id=11395

This activity was quickly rewarded by the teaser trailer for the film posted on thedarkknight.com. The teaser trailer features a conversation between Bruce Wayne and Alfred in which Bruce Wayne is frustrated at the new freak criminal element overtaking Gotham from the deadly but predictable mob. This conversation is set against a bleak animated version of the teaser image featured before with the Batman symbol being blown up with the conversation as the audio track.

A couple of weeks before Halloween, whysoserious.com was updated to feature a jack-o-lantern with an animated flame on the candle. The mouth of the jack-o-lantern was cut out in the shape of the bat signal and this was another nod to The Long Halloween. As the days went by and Halloween approached, the candle was slowly burning down. It was clear that this was a countdown to something else that was to happen on Halloween.

http://batman-dark-knight.moviechronicles.com/2007-10/why-so-serious-bat-shaped-jack-o-lantern/

On Halloween, a new game appeared on the site whysoserious.com. It featured 49 clues for fans in 21 cities. The clues asked fans to take photos of alphabetical letters on specific signs in those cities. They then uploaded the photos and when they were all complete, a message on the site read, “The only sensible way to live in this world is without rules.” Now fans could click on the message and they were provided with a new photo and dialogue of the Joker from the film. The audio dialogue said, “And tonight you’re gonna break your one rule.” Everyone knows that Batman’s one rule is to not kill anyone.

http://www.whysoserious.com/

The site then linked over to a new website, rorysdeathkiss.com, and fans were invited to play a new game. They were asked to dress up like Joker thugs, just like the fans did in San Diego, and then take a photo and submit it to the site.

The photos were then categorized and featured on this new site. The promise was that everyone who submitted a photo would receive a prize, but three lucky winners would receive an even better prize. Everyone who submitted a photo received an actual physical copy of The Gotham Times newspaper. In the back of the paper, the three winning photos were featured in an article. The newspapers also featured a variety of content that provided additional depth and clues for the upcoming film and led fans to discover dozens of new websites of business, services, and organizations of Gotham City. The paper also appeared online and was quickly followed by a Joker-defaced version.

http://www.firstshowing.net/2007/11/23/the-gotham-times-is-online/

http://batman-dark-knight.moviechronicles.com/2007-11/gotham-times-online-edition-out-now/

In December, whysoserious.com was changed again to feature a new game. Fans were asked to take a personality test and when they were finished, a hidden clue was provided on the site. The clue featured addresses and a message. The addresses were to bakeries in various cities. The first fan that arrived at these bakeries and gave them the message were given cakes. The cakes had a message written on the top of them that said, “Call me now!!” followed by a phone number. When the fans called the phone numbers, the cakes started to “ring”. When fans tore apart the cakes to find out what was making the ringing noise, they found a bag of clues and a phone buried inside. Following the clues, the fans called a number on the new phone and they then were invited to an exclusive sneak peek at the first 8 minutes of the new film at their local IMAX theatre.

http://www.mefeedia.com/entry/attention-batman-fans/5069632/

For the rest of the fans, there was a new site at atasteforthetheatrical.com that featured a classified at for a car trailer business in Gotham called Gotham City Trailer Coach Co. However, the ad was defaced and the clues indicated a countdown to Dec 28th at 8:00 pm. Fans understood that this is when the new Trailer for the film was going to be featured on the web.

Then, something tragic happened in January of 2008. Heath Ledger passed away.

It is speculated that this viral interactive campaign will no longer continue. Even though it was the actor, not the character, that passed away, it could be a bit too creepy to have the character continue these antics in cyberspace before the release of the film.

Even though this campaign was for a feature film release, it contains elements that every brand can learn a lesson from.

5 Important Elements of An Effective Interactive Campaign

1. Break Out of the Web. Take it offline and blur the line of cyberspace.
2. Build a Campaign Over Time. Don’t reveal everything at once. Sustain interest by creating a dialogue with your consumers and brand advocates.
3. Go Deep with the Brand. Interactive campaigns allow you to target your most loyal brand advocates. Reward them. Don’t stay on the surface.
4. Use Elements of Game Play. Create mystery.
5. Leverage Online Social Behavior. Understand that we live in a world with forums, Facebook, Digg, and YouTube. Fans will talk. Give them some space.

I’m not sure who all was involved with The Dark Knight interactive campaign, but I am very impressed. If anyone knows, please leave the information in the comments.